3/1/07

In this article, I want to give my opinion about low paying ads or usually called MFA site by AdsBlacklist.

Every publisher in AdSense should know that they may use Competitive Ad Filter inside their account to filter unwanted ads being displayed at their site. Actually, this feature only used for filtering the competitor ads displayed at a site. But, as the time goes on, Competitive Ad Filter is being used for blocking some site that estimated has low bid in AdWord. For example, some MFA site “usually” make low bid at AdWord. Then many webmaster try wipes them out from internet and hoping better revenue from other advertisers who make higher bid at AdWord.

Did it works? Unfortunately not…

Blocking low paying ads and hope your earning increase is not always the best choice. Based on my experience in AdSense (almost 4 years), many research I’ve been done at that Competitive Ad Filter and I’ve found that blocking the poor ads is useless. Frankly, my earnings always higher when there are no blocked URL at Competitive Ad Filter box.

However, you can use your Competitive Ad Filter to block your competitor ads. But you should not block the low paying ads. There are 4 reasons why you should not using Competitive Ad Filter to block low paying ads:

Low paying ads with higher CTR rather than usual ads.

For example:

Advertiser A make a bid at AdWord for ads A = $0.01 per clickAdvertiser B make a bid at AdWord for ads B = $0.1 per clickAdvertiser A is a great marketer and knows better about the advertisement methods so their ads can attract visitors for clicking the ads. (High CTR)Advertiser B is a common advertiser and fills the ads with usual words inside their ads. That will make the ads has no interest point for visitors. (Low CTR)Which one do you choose? High CTR or Low CTR? Actually, I will choose ads A since it will generate more click rather than ads B.

Advertisers make multiple bidding prices at AdWord for the same sites/pages.

For example:

Advertiser A make a bid at AdWord for keyword “dog” = $0.01 per clickAdvertiser A make a bid at AdWord for keyword “pet” = $1 per clickAdvertiser A make a bid at AdWord for keyword “store” = $5 per clickBoth of those bids are redirected to his “pet-store” website.Still want to block that “pet-store” website at your filtering list? I don’t think so…

Advertisers increase their bidding price in AdWord.

Advertisers usually considering increase their bids in AdWord depend on many factors such as:

If there are only few ads in AdWord’s inventory for your keywords and most of those ads are paying low, what will be happened if you’re about blocking all of those ads? Yup, that’s right…. unrelated ads or even PSA will be displayed at your site.

For additional, there’s one think you have to consider about blocking and filtering Low Paying Ads. As I’ve been told in the previous time…. Most of Low Paying Ads are created by owners of MFA sites. Let me tell you a little story about it:

Visitor A, an internet expert visit your site and reading the content inside your site. After finished reading, he can’t find any clues as he wanted within your contents. So, he wants more related information and look at your advertisement. He’s interest with one ad and…. Click! He was brought to a MFA site. As he knew that he won’t find anything on that MFA site, he hit the back button at his browser and get back to your site. He chooses another interesting ad… Click! Finally he’s found the information as he wanted.

So, what is the conclusion for that story?

Yup, you’re right again…. MFA sites actually can double your income in AdSense although most of you didn’t realize….

Don’t worry about invalid click; Google’s algorithm is smarter than you ever think. Two clicks inside the story above won’t be categorized as fraud or invalid click.

I won’t close my eyes and my ears. I’ve seen and hear there are many publishers get their income increases when using Competitive Ad Filter. So, it’s all depends on you….

The most important thing you should know when using the features, watch your AdSense stats carefully. High eCPM can’t guarantee that your filtering is works. Focus on CTR of your site before and after blocking/filtering. If your CTR is higher, then keep using Competitive Ad Filter for blocking. If your CTR is drop, then make your Competitive Ad Filter empty and you should not block Low Paying Ads.